Saturday, January 8, 2000

Casio MP3 Wristwatch -- 8:46 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The perfect gift for the geek who has everything. Casio has announced a watch that can play MP3s. The 16M version will retail at US$199 and the 32M version at US$249. If this isn't the ultimate in geek chic, I don't know what is. Nothing says "geek" like having headphones attached to your wristwatch. Thanks Slashdot.

The Carmack on PowerPlay -- 8:38 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

id's John Carmack posted on Slashdot from his honeymoon in Hawaii (Anna K. must be a saint) to clarify why he does not wish to be a part of the PowerPlay effort at this time. Here's a snip:

I had a long talk with a couple people from Valve about the PowerPlay initiative, but they couldn't give me enough specific technical details for me to endorse it. I'm all for improvements in networking infrastructure, but at this point, there isn't anything actually there, just an intention to improve gaming. They need to tell me SPECIFICALLY what I am supposed to be endorsing. At some point, bits have to go into packets and routers need to make decisions on them. Changes at that level is what I want to hear about, not strategic company relationships.

He also adds some things about TCP/IP improvements that sound really cool but they went over my head so fast my hair got about three new parts.

Q3Control -- 1:26 pm CST, Update by The Master

A new remote control app called Q3Control has just been released in beta format. Looks very cool. According to the author, the program supports Quake2, Quake3: Arena, and will support QuakeWorld in a future release. Very cool. And it's free :-) Saw this on the q3servers mailing list.

PowerPlay -- 1:15 pm CST, Update by The Master

A new joint-venture between Valve and Cisco, which includes a bunch of other gaming companies, was just announced yesterday. You can check out this venture, called PowerPlay, at their Official online site.

The concept of PowerPlay is a combo hardware, software, and API system to be used from end-to-end in a game to improve the performance of online gaming. I can see this as a cool idea, but if ISPs have to shell out big bucks for new core hardware to support it, it isn't going to happen. I wish them luck.

New Qstat version 2.3e -- 1:13 pm CST, Update by The Master

I know I should have posted this yesterday, but there's a new version of QStat available for downloading. QStat is a command-line server status program. It's mainly used by server admins for putting up those cool server status pages.

Friday, January 7, 2000

UT 404 Patch Fixes/Improvements -- 11:27 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The Alchemy Zone has posted a list of fixes and new features for the upcoming Unreal Tournament 404 patch. No word on when the patch will be out. Thanks Redwood.

DOS Attack Over -- 7:16 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

id's Christian Antkow updated his .plan with this simple message:

Things appear to be back to normal.

Hopefully they can find the person or persons responsible for this attack.

Q3A Point Release Beta -- 3:59 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

OK, folks, I don't know what to think about this one. I know it is legit, but I don't know if it is worth downloading or not. Here's the skinny from PlanetQuake's Quake III page:

We've decided to make the point release beta, but public, because there's nothing like a few million beta testers! When running servers using this release we highly suggest running them as non-pure servers so that older clients can connect to them without problems. Please read the enclosed FAQ for a detailed list of which bugs and UI features we've addressed with this point release. If all goes well we'll go with a final version of the point release very soon. The Macintosh and Linux builds of the point release BETA will be out hopefully today as well.

I dunno. Something about a point release beta just makes me itchy. If you feel like trying it, here are some mirrors: Shugashack, PlanetQuake, Oxygen Tank, and Blue's News. The file is just over a meg.

Update: Being the sucker that I am, I am downloading the betatestdemopatch. It is coming from the Shack quite speedily actually. I'll post the list of changes once it is here. Stay tuned.

Update #2: Here is the list of the additions and fixes in the point release beta. Please note that there are many, many typos in that list. Don't email me for an explanation. I don't know either. :)

Q3A Point Release Soon? -- 12:50 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I just saw this post on PlanetQuake's Quake III page:

Word is just in from Graeme Devine of id Software, that the release of the Quake III Point Release is very close. After getting all the documentation together the package should be out the door. By all indications this means today kids, so let the drooling commence.

Gentlemen (and Ladies!) start your modems!

Everybody File for an IPO! -- 9:35 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

If you have a pulse, you realize that there is a feeding frenzy in the stock market on anything having to do with technology. The current darling is Linux. Red Hat went public and made a small fortune (as of this moment it is trading at 244 1/4 per share). Trying to ride this wave is a "company" called LinuxOne who a) copied Red Hat's S-1 statement almost verbatim (except that it has $0 in sales), and b) consists of $150,000 put up by the president and $5000 in equipment (most likely, a web server). Sadly, these idiots will probably make a mint. Investors who know nothing about the technology yet somehow have money to burn, will lose it (money) by the bushel. Check out The Motley Fool's article on LinuxOne for a good lesson on what NOT to invest in. Thanks Slashdot.

UT FAQ Updated -- 9:07 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Having problems with Unreal Tournament? Check out the unofficial FAQ which was just updated! Thanks VoodooExtreme.

A tribute to Peanuts -- 8:46 am CST, Update by The Master

Recently, I read about the shocking announcement that Peanuts was leaving the funny pages. There's a tribute site with an online quilt for Charles Shulz and the Peanuts gang. I personally will miss the quality and subtle humor that Peanuts brought to the funny pages.

Q3A Problems-DOS attack on id -- 8:34 am CST, Update by The Master

According to Blue, id Software is under a Denial-of-Service attack right now, and therefore anyone having problems playing Q3A should assume the measures being used to combat the DOS attack are causing your problems. Here's the scoop:

Connectivity Problems with Q3A

To be blunt, we are currently the target of a major denial of service attack which was started at 3pm CST this afternoon.

The perpetrators of this denial of service are saturating two full DS3's coming into Dallas, and are affecting all Savvis, UUNet, and Sprint connections locally.

To combat this attack, Savvis, UUNet, and Sprint have implemented access filters blocking certain traffic to our entire class C, and are blocking our DNS server entirely.

Savvis will be monitoring the situation throughout the evening, and I'm expecting a wakeup call at 8am from the morning tech crew at Savvis for an update. I will be calling the FBI in the morning to proceed legally on this attack.

I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this is causing you. Believe me, we are as frustrated as you are.

A.T. Hun comments: Boy, the warez lamers will stop at nothing. Someone on the Shugashack suggested an appropriate punishment, which I can't repeat here (it's a family site after all). If you've seen the movie Deliverence, you'll know immediately :)

Past Two Days' News

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